Conan O'Brien Returns: Will You Tune In?
NEW YORK (
) -- Conan O'Brien is returning to television tonight as the host of his new show
Conan
on TBS.
O'Brien has been off the air since he left NBC in January after the network planned to bump his show to a later time slot to make room for
The Jay Leno Show
.
|
In June 2009, O'Brien replaced Jay Leno as the host of the
Tonight Show
after hosting NBC's
Late Night
show for 16 years. Leno's
The Jay Leno Show
aired during the 10 P.M. time slot and the
Tonight Show
aired at 11:35 P.M.
When Leno's show received disappointing ratings,
NBC executive Jeff Zucker
suggested pushing the start of
The Tonight Show
30 minutes later to 12:05 A.M., to make way for Leno's return to 11:35 p.m.
O'Brien would not agree to these terms. On January 21, it was announced that NBC would give O'Brien a $45 million exit deal, and O'Brien would no longer be a host on NBC.
"I sincerely believe that delaying the
Tonight Show
into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting," O'Brien said in a January 22 statement. "The
Tonight Show
at 12:05 simply isn't the
Tonight Show
."
Tonight, O'Brien will appear on
Time Warner's
(TWX)
TBS, with Andy Richter as his sidekick. Actor Seth Rogen and
Glee!
actress Lea Michele will be his first guests, and Jack White will be the musical guest.
O'Brien's former
Late Night
and
Tonight
band leader Max Weinberg will not join him in his move to
Conan
. Jimmy Vivino, a guitarist and vocalist in the original band will lead the "Basic Cable Band" on the new show.
O'Brien's hour-long program is scheduled to air on weeknights at 11 P.M. ET. The show will begin about a half-hour before the start of
The Late Show with David Letterman
on
CBS
(CBS) - Get Report
and the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
on
General Electric's
(GE) - Get Report
NBC.
Another late-night contender is
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
, which airs at 11 P.M. ET on
Viacom's
(VIA) - Get Report
Comedy Central.
Stewart's
The Daily Show
was ranked as the No. 1 late night entertainment talk show among the 18 to 49-year old demographic in October, according to Nielsen.
Stewart brought in 1.3 million viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, while
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
and the
Late Show with David Letterman
tied with 1.2 million viewers each.
With
Conan
set to debut tonight, many television watchers anticipate the November results. With
Conan
on the air there will likely be increased competition among the late-night programs.
Now we'd like to know what you think. Will you be watching Conan on TBS tonight? Or will you stick to your usual programming on CBS and NBC? Take our poll, and see what readers of
TheStreet
think.
-- Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.
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